It sometimes happens that you meet a person, and immediately feel that you have known them a lifetime. A deep friendship results, with no effort at all. It was exactly the same when I met the "Wanderer". She is a 14' dinghy designed by Ian Proctor, in 1980. Already I had sailed, with my husband, his Wayfarer, and over a period of years, we had enjoyed some superb cruising in many countries. I thought there was no finer small open boat on the market today. The more dinghies that I sailed, the more I loved, and respected the Wayfarer. She kept us safe and gave us fantastic sailing.

However, being a sailing fanatic, and something of a "loner", I had always needed a dinghy of my own. Because the Wayfarer is too heavy to launch and recover single handed, and because such a powerful cruising boat needed a reef early on, I decided that, to sail with Frank in a Wayfarer, was the best thing that life offered but that when I sailed alone, I needed something different.

The Mirror 10, the Gull Mk 1, and the G.P. 14 were all used extensively, but each had its own draw backs. One being too small one too heavy, and one too tippy for single handed cruising. Builder Philip Atha was confident, and enthusiastic about the "Wanderer" 14 and he fired me with his enthusiasm, and he even persuaded me of the virtues of GRP dinghies. For twenty years I had only owned wooden dinghies, and I simply could not think of a glass fibre boat as a friend. Now I own "Wanderer" 48, and this new class of dinghy is selling well when most dinghy classes are suffering badly, due to the recession. I enjoy being in at the beginning of the class growth, because there is almost a paternal affection in its development. I am designing a good tent for this dinghy, and hope that others will enjoy my design.

She is a good dinghy, no doubt about that. Roomy, stable, plenty of dry stowage, with enough speed to ensure a good performance, and yet needing no athlete to keep her upright. Her bermudian mast gives her a satisfying performance when sailing around the tree lined Norfolk Broads and hedge fringed rivers and estuaries, and since it is fixed in a tabernacle, it can be lowered with ease, so bridges and low wires pose no problem. I didn't know whether she would prove a good sea boat, so I took her on an East Coast Wayfarer rally. Seven Wayfarers and my Wanderer, and a Miracle left the Alde to sail ten miles down the coast into the Deben. We had telephoned the local weather men and got a forecast. In the event, we got an 180º switch in the wind, and it came in strong. The Wayfarers, as expected, all reefed and coped with the bumpy seas and force 6 winds with ease, "We just didn't know how the 14' dinghy would cope." We reefed, and sailed on, amazed at her stability, and the way she took those seas. You only gain experience by going out and trying and we had taken all proper cruising precautions.

I now have great faith in my new dinghy. Well reefed I feel she will take me anywhere, and provide a safe comfortable home for many years to come. Some of my friends are still rubbing down and varnishing and I am already afloat and sailing every spare day that I have free, and Easter is still some way off, so even GRP has some advantages.

Whilst I feel sure that the 16' Wayfarer is a king amongst cruising dinghies, I feel that the Wanderer must be one of the best 14' cruising dinghies afloat today. Her details are:

LOA 14' 0" (4.27m) Beam 5' 10" (1.78m) Sail area 109 sq ft (10.12m) Weight 275 lb (124.8 kg) Price (1980) £1319 Builder: Winton Boats of Wimborne, Bournemouth

As this class becomes known, it will probably be raced, it seems an ideal small multi purpose boat, and that always makes for an active association. The fact, that I can sail wherever I like can take out friends or sail alone, with equal ease, can launch and recover, on my own, gives me all the freedom afloat that any normal dinghy cruising person is looking for.